Episode 3 Discussion

[Alpha One]

(15-11-2009 11:12 PM)Adam Carter Wrote:  I have no idea what to make of this episode. The writing was all over the place. There was just not enough focus on Ros, Lucas, and Jo. There was a huge chunk of this episode where Lucas and Jo just completely disappeared. The pacing was incredibly off.

And the ending? Well, needless to say I'm numb. I think this episode was definitely momentum killer for the series. I think the show's unpredictability is starting to hurt it a bit. There's absolutely zero sense of consistency, and I'm starting to miss the days of Series 4 and 5, where we had a strong, plentiful grid. The lack of a strong, clear leader like Tom or Adam is starting to creep up.

I agree with you.

Its predictable unpredictablity, shocking for the sake of it and to create a dramatic episode. It's as if the writing team are creating scripts like a recipe (a death here, a fight there, a bit of Harry/Ruth on the grid, romance for Lucas, clever lines for Ros, some techy stuff) and sometimes (as in 8.3) the ingredients don't mix well together.

Ros was a strong leader in S7 but her leadership has lessened in S8. Her silence in episode 3 was one of the reasons for the episode missing the spot by miles. Was the fact that Ros was outside the communications loop meant to be the reason why Jo got into her deadly situation?

The grid scenes are different too, this season. The grid is smaller and looks less like a busy working office. Harry, Ruth and Tariq in a small space - no-one else in visibility.